Irwin Smith's caregiver, a romantic short story! Shingeki no Kyojin
by Amaterasura
Summary: Elsbeth (OC) is a soldier from the Survey Corps and she was asked to take care of the injured Commander, Irwin Smith after the Eren-Retrieval mission. Maybe Irwin had a bit of feelings for her even before all that? *The cover image is borrowed from zeronchan by artist motopipa9
1. Part 1 - The eccentric Dot Pixis

**Part 1 - The eccentric Dot Pixis**

**Warning: this story contains a big spoiler concerning the plot and our beloved Irwin Smith if you still haven't read beyond chapter 42 of the manga. **

**[STOP READING UNLESS YOU REALLY WANT TO SEE THE SPOILER!] If everything's okay then please proceed!**

About half of the soldiers who participated in the most recent expedition did not return home. The whole reason of the pursue was Eren Jäeger and Ymir's abduction by the Armored and Colossal Titans. Irwin Smith firmly believed that Eren Jäeger, the titan shifter holds the ultimate secret to humanity's redemption. Immediately, he launched a full-scale hunt to retrieve the missing cadets. During the battle with a massive number of Titans, the Commander had his right arm bitten off, hardly managed to escape death. The objective of the mission was achieved, but the number of casualty had left the survivors grim.

This is where our real story begins.

A pretty, brown haired soldier lightly knocked and pushed open the door, followed by her eccentric superior, Dot Pixis. The Garrison Commander walked in, looking light-hearted as always, hands held behind his back.

"How you feeling, young man?" He asked.

Irwin sat up on his bed; his remaining arm gently stretched the blanket from slipping off his shoulders. "Commander Pixis, you really shouldn't worry about me in this time of chaos. After all, more than half of the soldiers had died because of my command."

"Hmm...hmm." The old man shut his eyes, stroking the tip of his moustache. He then reached into his inner breast pocket, but suddenly realized something, and retrieved his hand. "Oh, I forgot that my pretty assistant had confiscated my bottle."

Irwin smiled, "It's nice to take a break from your drinking habit once in a while." He cast a glance to Pixis' assistant, "And it's interesting to see how you always surrender to younger women."

"Hahahaha!" The older man full-heartily laughed. "What do you expect? I'm a man after all." The female soldier, who's usually stoic looking, slightly frowned and averted her eyes elsewhere. She really lacked the genes for humor.

The Garrison Commander sat down on the chair beside Irwin's bedframe and said with amusement: "now that your condition is more or less stable, I suppose the nurse won't check up on you so often anymore, don't you think?"

"Hmm." Irwin lightly smirked, "I'm not that fragile, you know."

Pixis slightly raised his chin, crossing his arms together. "Medical staffs are all attending to your wounded men from the hunt. Those are their top priority now. Your facial bones turned quite prominent. You've lost a lot of weight, Commander."

"This is nothing, I should be more concerned about my soldiers."

"Just now, I met your subordinate Elsbeth and talked her into taking care of you in the nurse's place. Her father was a doctor, so she knows a bit about medical science. Quite a gem you got there." Pixis gleefully said.

"Ah." Irwin looked surprised. "Elsbeth? How is she doing?"

"I heard she's a capable soldier, only suffered some light injuries." Pixis smiled under his moustache. "She looked healthy enough to slay Titans at any given moment."

"It's a relief to hear some of my subordinates are doing well. But I'm really fine, no need to trouble her for this."

Pixis amusingly stood up from his chair and fixed his wrinkled uniform. "No need to pretend being such gentleman. After all, who doesn't like the company of a beautiful girl?"

Irwin's pale cheeks slightly reddened, but immediately put on a stern face to prevent any suspicion.

The old man laughed again, obviously saw through Irwin's mind. "Those messy hair and unshaven beard should be taken care of first. She will be perfect for that job!" He walked to the door, his assistant saluted to the Survey Corps Commander and exited first. Pixis mischievously said: "I've done all the work for you. I told her that you are more than happy to receive her. She's coming tomorrow!" And he exited the room too, shutting the door gently from outside, leaving an extremely awkward looking Irwin.

The blond man's left hand rubbed his frowning forehead and sighed. "It would be so embarrassing to let her see me in such miserable shape."

Does the Commander have some romantic feelings for Elsbeth? Who knows, haha.


	2. Part 2 - Elsbeth's coming!

**Part 2 – Elsbeth's coming!**

At dusk, the nurse came into Irwin's room to change his bandages.

"Mister Commander... I'm so sorry for not being punctual today." The nurse apologetically said as she began to carefully unwrap the old wound dressings. "We have so many injured, some still in critical condition. Our hands are really full these days..."

Irwin noticed the heavy dark circles under her eyes and felt sympathy. He politely smiled and said: "I already heard that from Pixis. It's fine, really. I'm rather grateful that my men are under good care."

The nurse unconsciously slowed down her hands, some redness crept onto her wan complexion. "You are such an altruistic man, Commander." She said. "There, all done."

"Thank you."

Irwin had trouble sleeping that night. His eyes blinked in the dark, staring at the faint outline of the ceiling lamp. Having an arm missing was hard to get use to. The limb that was a part of him for as long as he could remember suddenly got bitten off and swallowed. He then reflected on the most recent expedition, and the identities of the three new titan-shifters. The Commander, a far-thinker as he is, thought about the future in every aspect. He was still worried about the people inhabiting within the walls, predicting if one day more humans with unusual powers would emerge and cause harm. But, aside from all these, he thought about Elsbeth too.

Elsbeth is considered a veteran among the Survey Corps, but one of the youngest. Lost in his own memories, Irwin recalled some flashbacks from old expeditions. For the past few years, he often assigned Elsbeth to his own squad because of her battle skill. But he never viewed her as anyone more than a subordinate, until that day.

During a regular expedition about a year ago, a large group of aberrant Titans brutally eliminated several squads on lookout and penetrated the formation. Black smoke signals soon multiplied across the sky. While analyzing the situation, the Commander felt a stressful tension in his chest for the loss of his men. Before he could deduce a new plan to avoid more frictions, a smaller group of five Titans suddenly appeared, sprinting towards his own squad. Without a slight hesitation, Irwin gave order: "Henning, Elsbeth! Eliminate all Titans in sight! Those are abberants, don't let them continue their rampage!"

"Understood!" The two veterans changed their course, preparing to switch into their 3D maneuver gear.

The moment they left his side, the Commander suddenly regretted his decision of having sent Elsbeth among them. At first, even he had no idea why he felt so. He had never possessed any lingering feeling for any of his subordinates, despite the fact that he cared for them deeply. During the rest of the expedition, anxiety harshly gripped Irwin, who began to fear for Elsbeth's slim survival chance, since they were dealing with five aberrants. But the Commander was a man with strong sense of duty. Thus, he forcibly suppressed his feelings and carried on in leading his soldiers until the objective was achieved.

At sunset, the regrouping soldiers started to put the corpses onto the chariots. The Commander's frowning eyebrows never relaxed and he felt a sickening, yet tumbling sensation in his stomach as he watched. He couldn't control himself anymore and began to unfold the corpses' shrouds to see if Elsbeth was among them, since neither Henning nor she has returned. Irwin finally understood that his squad just wouldn't be the same without her, the girl who accompanied him in countless expeditions throughout the years. It was about time they leave for the Walls. Titans could appear at any moment.

The stone in Irwin's heart finally dropped when a soldier cried out the names of the two. Badly bruised, they returned with their horses, having successfully eliminated the five aberrants. Later thinking in retrospect, Irwin must admit that he had harbored feelings for her deep inside after all.

After recalling the past in vivid details, the Commander's tiredness finally gave in. He slept.

Right after daybreak, Elsbeth knocked on his door. Having no expectation to let her injured superior move around, she automatically twisted open the doorknob. "Commander, I'm coming in."

The man she expected to see was nowhere in plain sight. The bed cover was wrinkled, hinting that someone had just woken up. Elsbeth was a bit puzzled. Where could Irwin be at this early in the morning? He shouldn't be moving at all in the condition he was in.

"Tsh..." From the washroom came a sudden, uncomfortable groan of a man. The sound of tab water began to flow for a brief moment and was turned off abruptly. Elsbeth peeked in, stunned by what she saw. The Commander was shaving along his prominent jawline and the blade of his razor left a cut on the skin. By the sink, he dabbed a wet towel on the new bruise.

He flinched when he noticed Elsbeth's presence. His naked, well-toned back and chest were fully exposed to her eyes. Fresh dewdrops from his wet hair dripped and rolled down his broad shoulders. Elsbeth's face was already flushed by a horrible shade of red, miserably rooted on the spot by this rare sight of her shirtless superior. The Commander always gave an image of himself erectly standing in an impeccable uniform, clean-shaven, and his blond hair neatly trimmed. Now his half-shaven beard looked so funny, in addition of those wet messy hair. However, Elsbeth's face grimed with sorrow once Irwin turned around to face her, exposing his missing arm on the other side. Just now, he was trying to do everything with a single hand.

The man softened his gaze and reservedly smiled. "You're early, Elsbeth."


End file.
